Tribe.net to be Revamped

I received the following email today from Tribe.net, which I discovered (and liked) long before I found Myspace, and later Facebook and LinkedIn. It appears that Tribe.net is back in the game.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) November 11, 2008 -- Utah Street Networks and New Systems Associates today entered into an operating agreement to manage Tribe.net, one of the first social networking sites, add competitive social networking features to the site, and revitalize the Tribe community.

The first priorities for New Systems Associates are to stabilize the platform and improve the site's performance. To accomplish these goals, the company is committing substantial resources to upgrade Tribe's hardware and application. The hardware migration will begin immediately, resulting in better performance and stability users expect from a world-class social network. New Systems Associates will also add new features to improve connections within the Tribe community and to other social networks and widgets.

In the longer term, New Systems Associates will grow the Tribe community by developing features including advanced privacy features, profile control, regional relevancy, personal discovery, and free-range connectivity. The company is committed to strengthening Tribe's alternative community and the unique ways in which users interact.

Utah Street Networks, Inc. is the owner of Tribe.net, one of the oldest social networking sites on the Internet and pioneers of social graphing.

New Systems Associates is an LLC formed by long-time Tribe members who believe in protecting and expanding Tribe's unique culture.

For more information please email info @ tribe.net.

De Profundis in Your Pocket

Etsy.com, "your place to buy & sell all things handmade" (and support hard-working artisans instead of corporations), offers an Oscar Wilde De Profundis Pocket Mirror.

Artist Tiffini Elektra X makes other mirrors, as well, featuring collages based on themes ranging from Buddha to Alice in Wonderland to Shakespeare to the Muses. At her own site, tartx.com, you'll find a range of her other handmade items that include jewelry, magnets, and bookmarks.

Central / East European Literary Anthology - Free PDF Download

Slovakia's Centre for Information on Literature (Literárne a informačné centrum) has done a great thing for literature and language: They have placed a downloadable PDF of an anthology of Czech, Slovak, Polish, and Hungarian literature, called Visegrad 4 Countries, on their website. Additionally, and most important for folks like me (linguistically challenged), there's a translation of the anthology text in English.

Pal Bekes (Hungary), the anthology's editor-in-chief, headed the project that received support by the following country editors: Ivory Rodriguez (Czech Republic), Ina Martinova (Slovakia), and Piotr Marciszuk (Poland).

Authors include: Jan Balaban, Stanislav Beran, and Jachym Topol (Czech Republic); Karol D. Horvath, Marius Kopcsay, and Ursula Kovalyk (Slovakia); Pawel Huelle, Olga Tokarczukova, and Daniel Odija (Poland); and Lajos Parti Nagy, Szilard Podmaniczky, Margit Halaszova, and Gyorgy Spiro (Hungary).

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As I have only read Jachym Topol from the above list of Central/East European writers, I'm looking forward to reading my own downloaded copy over the holidays.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter "Dallas" Lost at Sea

Hmmm... U.S. Coast Guard cutter "Dallas" seems to have gotten lost, since (last time I checked) THE U.S. COAST IS NOWHERE NEAR THE BLACK SEA.

thisislondon.co.uk article
(with pic of "Dallas" arriving in Batumi, Georgia - a port on the Black Sea)

official US Coast Guard photo on flickr
(of "Dallas" at a port in Crete, Greece)

It doesn't matter whether the Coast Guard cutter ship is there "for humanitarian reasons" or not, it's the type of action that makes the US look either a) aggressive, b) stupid, or c) both a & b.

Originial Blade Server

Wikipedia mentions plenty about blade servers here.

But strangely... in Wikipedia's "history of blade servers" section, no mention is made of Zorro.